As will be readily apparent to those in the fashion industry, the ability to change easily and predictably the color of textiles in the form of garments, bed linens and other home furnishings, would be of great commercial significance. The ability to change the color of a favorite garment in one's own home would extend the range and life of the owner's wardrobe without significant cost.
The ability to effect color changes would also be of significant commercial and economic importance to textile mills and manufacturers. For example, knowing that the color of a given run of textiles produced for a particular season can be changed to colors for a following season would permit mills to establish large inventories for a longer selling season. As presently structured, the mills must dispose of their inventories of textiles in fashion colors by means of "close outs", which are often at a loss. With the ability to predictably and selectively change the colors of unsold inventory to other readily salable colors, or even to white, for printing, or redyeing, "close out" sales would become unnecessary.
The availability of textiles whose colors can be quickly and inexpensively changed would also permit smaller manufacturers to purchase two or more colors at the relatively large minimum yardage for single runs imposed by the large mills.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,030,227 describes a process in which a fabric is dyed with a dyestuff which is acid resistant and with a resin-bonded pigment susceptible to decomposition upon treatment with acid. In combination, the two coloring materials impart a certain color to the fabric. If it is desired to change the color, the fabric is treated with acid to decompose the resin-bonded pigment, leaving the fabric colored only by the acid resistant dyestuff.
The procedure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,030,227 is useful, but has a number of drawbacks. In the first place, the number of suitable dyestuffs or pigments available is rather limited so that a full range of colors is difficult to achieve. More importantly, the acids required for effecting the color change are not normally available to the consumer for use in home laundries. Finally the treatment leaves the textile with an offensive odor.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of changing the color of textiles, either in the form of garments and other finished products, or as piece goods, that can be practised quickly and easily using materials which are readily available to consumers.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method of changing the color of textiles and garments which can be safely and simply practised by the consumer in the home laundry or local laundromat.
It is also an object of this invention to provide textile mills with a method of producing colored textiles which can be changed in color, or even returned to white, for printing or redyeing.
Another object of the invention is to provide textiles with the inherent capability of predetermined color change in order to permit garment manufacturers to obtain the benefit of large volume purchases from mills and thereafter vary the colors of portions of the textile to meet their seasonal inventory requirements.